Tuesday

Quick day-trip to Montreal, Quebec for a special preview of the new Cirque du Soleil show Kurios. The big tent is set up on a pier in Old Port.

This was my first Cirque du Soleil show but I've seen every show offered on DVD. It was absolutely wonderful to see live. The performers were excellent (and impressive) and there was so much interaction with the audience. It was funny, too! The music and singers were live and amazing. I can't recommend enough seeing a live performance.

Before the show, we walked around until we found a place for supper. I've been wanting to try poutine for years but missed the opportunity to try it in Quebec City a few years ago when we went up for the summer music festival. This time was not going to miss a bowl of fries, gravy and cheese curds:

I think this is going to be my regular order from now on whenever I'm in Quebec. It was as good as I imagined it would be.

Also made a pit stop to a SAQ to pick up two bottles of Sortilege: the original maple whiskey and the maple cream. Omg, the maple cream is going to be like maple Bailey's- I can't wait to try it!

Friday

I started the seeds in small pots inside, after using a plane grater to shave off some of the shell. All parts of this plant are edible- leaves, stem and flower. I don't have any glow lights so some of the seedlings that are further along are rather leggy, but I'll give them harden them off a bit every day now that temperatures are rising again.

Finally some seeds are germinating in the cactus pots I started 3 weeks ago. Most of my winter sown seedlings appear to be all right outside, but I have had to cover them the past two nights. The freezing weather has slowed everything down and none of the crocuses have even bloomed yet.

Tuesday

Many years ago a friend gave me a bag of dog fur. He has a pack of Siberian Huskies for sledding and an abundance of fur since this breed sheds it's undercoat twice a year. I brought the fur home and Googled the best way to wash it: stuffed into panty hose, soaked in a tub, dried in the sun. It's been so long but I finally took it out this weekend to card it into batts*.

*Okay, WEBS is having their annual anniversary sale and I've been rummaging through my stash of fiber and yarn, distracting and convincing myself that I don't need any of the beautiful things that they're offering at ridiculously reduced prices... must... resist...

The drum carder, secured it to a table:

I had lots of random merino in my stash to blend with the fur- white, yellow, brown, three shades of blue. I was going to use it all, at a ratio of 4 parts wool to 1 part fur. On average, everything I blended was 20 - 25% fur. The supplies here are 2 oz merino, 0.5 oz fur (half of the contents of the panty hose snake), a long knitting needle to help take the fiber off the drum and a slicker brush for cleaning up the drums.

I'm no expert at carding, having only seen a handful of YouTube videos and using this drum carder twice in the past. I just did what I thought made sense. The staple of the fur is short- only about an inch. So, I would lay down a layer of merino, add the fur, add another layer of merino. Then blend this again because if there's anything I learned from all the instructional videos, it's that "once is never enough" when you use a drum carder.

The first layer of wool:

Then feed in the fur:

Kind of lump at first:

But things start to smooth out (also, lots of fur gets picked up by the smaller drum- I used to slicker brush to repeatedly take this fiber off and feed it back into the carder):

Add another layer of blue:

Use the knitting needle to separate the fiber on the carder, so that you can peel the whole layer off. If someone would like to give me an ice pick as a present, that would be so much better than this aluminum needle (which has started to bend). I promise I wonder consider an ice pick delivered in the mail as a threat.

Then peel:

This wool-fur-wool sandwich is then separated into strips and fed back into the drum carder.

If "once is never enough" then "twice is good enough for lazy people". The fiber is more uniformly blended:

If I were going to sell this or give it away as a gift, I'd probably run it through the carder again but, hey, I'm the one spinning it and I really don't have many F's to give.

Here is the fiber ready to spin. Such a soft cloud. SO SOFT.

First time spinning:

Adding a lot of twist to help lock down the fur. Will process all of the yarn as two-ply. This picture is my practice yarn- I've spun more and the plies are a lighter weight and will be a finer yarn.

Once it's all spun and washed, I'll knit something. I can't wait to see what kind of halo anything knit with this yarn has.

Monday

The crocus bulbs that I planted last fall are JUST starting to poke up:

It should be a random mix of colors- I can't wait to see them bloom. Some daffodil bulbs are starting to poke up a bit. I've been cutting away dead foliage from other plants and found growth hiding underneath. This is a sedum ("Stonecrop") that I purchased last fall:

And I've been checking my winter sown containers every day... and thinks are sprouting! I'm so relieved- but now I need to make sure that I don't (a) let the containers dry out, and (b) let a hard frost overnight kill the seedlings.

Had a nice weekend. Went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Started my gourd seeds in small pots inside- just to give them several extra weeks since they need such a long growing season. I pulled out my drum carder to blend some merino fiber with washed siberian husky fur that a friend gave me years ago. I finally did my taxes. Got a hair cut. Still waiting on all the snow to melt...

Thursday

The last biased infinity scarf was knit during the trip home. I used the same yarn as the previous one (Regia Hand-dye Effect) but made this one completely in stockinette and a bit more narrow.

It definitely rolls at the edges when you wear it. I would recommend keeping periodic purl ridges to maintain the width of the cowl.

I knit it this way because the boucle biased cowl was made as plain stockinette and stays completely flat. Apparently this was just an added benefit to the texture of that yarn. This smoother sock yarn didn't work that same way. Still, I like it. It's long enough to wear doubled and matches one of my favorite winter hats.

Wednesday

For my trip out to Palm Springs, I had a bus ride down to Boston and two flights- i.e. a lot of knitting time. The bus and flights were completely full. I furiously knit this entire project in one day to keep my mind from fixating on things like (a) why won't the girls in front of me avidly talking about nothing SHUT UP, (b) why are neither guys giving me either armrest even though I'm in the middle seat, (c) should I offer the woman next to me who is sniffing every 4 - 15 seconds, THAT'S RIGHT I COUNTED, a kleenex, (d) STOP WHIPPING ME WITH YOUR HAIR EVERY TIME YOUR TURN YOUR HEAD, (e) WHY ARE YOU STICKING YOUR LEG INTO MY FOOT AREA, (f) AAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

So. Obviously I do fixate. I just don't like to be crammed into a can with a hundred strangers. I didn't have the two things with me which would have solved all my problems- earbuds and lorazepam. But I did have knitting. I made another Totally Biased with sock yarn- this is a perfect project for self-striping sock yarns with wide bands of color. I'd love to make another with Noro Silk Garden Sock. The yarn I used for this was one ball of Regia Hand-dye Effect.

This one was knit as 80 stitches on size US 8 needles. It can be wrapped around neck twice but it's a little tight. I haven't blocked it yet, which should make it longer. I worked a purl ridge every 8 rows.

Tuesday

I love the pattern Totally Biased. I made one for me and then one for my sister. Scarf weather is almost over (YYYYAAAAYYYYY) but made some new versions for next season. Here's a quick one:

Yarn is Knit Picks Quarry, an alpaca wool and nylon boucle blend. This yarn is so very discontinued. I can't even remember when I bought it but I've had two balls kicking around my stash forever. Finally, it's put to good use.

It was worked as 34 stitches on size 10.5 needles. So quick- it only took a few nights to complete.

This is plain stockinette but the edges not roll in due to the biased shape and the boucle yarn. It so soft and looks great on. I think this one might actually turn out to be a gift for my mom next Christmas. After I wear it a few times.